Beyond Manchurian chicken: the Mumbai fine-dining chefs adapting Chinese-Indian food
- In Mumbai, fine-dining chefs make Indian food more Chinese-Indian – think char siu in a sweet – and Chinese-Indian food more Southeast Asian
Chinese-Indian cuisine, also known as Chindian cuisine, is much less known around the world than other types of Chinese cuisine.
In Mumbai, there are two schools of thought about how the cuisine can be developed; one is by integrating Chindian flavours in contemporary Indian fare, and the other is by infusing it with Southeast Asian flavours to add another facet to the cuisine.
Over time, these Chinese settlers began to adapt their traditional recipes to suit the local palate, which favoured spicier and more robust flavours.
“The Hakka Chinese community in India, which is based around Calcutta, [is] where it all began,” says Hussain Shahzad, executive chef of Hunger Inc. Hospitality, a Mumbai-based restaurant group behind venues such as The Bombay Canteen and O Pedro.